Need directions on the road to evolutionary
enlightenment? Ask Cindy Trimble, a sophomore in Charlene Makley’s
Anthropology 211 class, to share her secret weapon—a “theory
map” representing the anthropologists
and schools of thought covered in the course. Trimble chose to take
a high-tech approach to cartography, designing her theory map
as a website
that presents
the key players, their basic positions, and the relationships between
them in an interactive format. She chose this format in part because
the map was
a work in progress that required a flexible structure able to accommodate
additional information that she would be adding over the course of
the semester.

The theory map assignment was intended to be done as part of
the students’ normal
reading and note-taking process in an effort to solidify their understanding
of the readings and connect it to those already covered. Trimble had never
constructed a website and jumped at the opportunity to try her hand at HTML.
With the right technology it was hardly daunting, and she found it convenient
to work on her creation any time, any place because she could open her website
on any available Reed computer—in the ETC building, the library,
commons, or on her personal laptop in the dorm.

Using Microsoft Publisher, Trimble crafted a complex yet intuitive
interface for her theory map site. A vertical navigation bar
provides easy access to
the anthropologists covered in the course in a rough chronological order,
based on the publication dates of their works and the years
in which they lived;
the chronology is not exact because she grouped anthropologists of the
same school of thought together, another important touch point
that allows for connections
to be drawn between theories. She used hyperlinks to connect general
ideas and theories with specific quotes from works covered
in class. Hyperlinks also
proved to be useful in connecting the anthropologists to one another
and to their references in sections such as “Points of Influence and Reaction” and “Criticisms.” When
you’re deep into Durkheim’s principal concepts and methodologies,
it takes just a mouse click to discover who disagreed with him and why—and
then you’re off and running after Franz Boas. Such is the tendency
of the human animal. . . .